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I had similar concerns, but here’s what I found to be a lot easier than I initially thought: - Make “real” friends with neighbors...they don’t need to be pilots (or mil) to be more than just the guy you say hi to occasionally. I do a lot of things with a few neighbors, none of whom have any connection to the mil/airlines. - Get involved in local clubs/groups who have a common hobby. I’ve met a lot of guys in the local shooting/hunting and GA flying communities...I think my beer drinking and bullshitting hours after I told my wife I’d be home has only increased! - Find a side job that’s something you enjoy, while also having the bonus of “work friends” / a work culture you like. Basically, you’re not doing it for the money, you’re doing it for the culture/hang out time and the job itself is fun/interesting.

I don’t know anyone who argues that an embryo is not a living thing. The question is; when does that entity become a person? And, perhaps just as importantly; who do you want to make that determination? Your church? Your government? Popular opinion? The mother? The father? You can see how this subject blurs the lines between morality, theology, and philosophy. Don’t we, as Americans, place great value on keeping our government away from such fuzzy issues? People are certainly entitled to make up their own minds on the subject. I would never advocate for someone who is pro life to change their mind. But when the question of when a person becomes a person is far from settled I find the idea that the government should make that decision for me to be unacceptable and frankly un-American.

Obviously the definition of life is not the appropriate framing for the conversation, especially within the context of a single celled organism on mars. I'm sure you would also concede that a spider, a mosquito, a cow, and aging family pet, or a mouse would be considered "life." We do not debate these intentional life-endings with nearly the same furor. Ironically, if you were to correlate political ideologies, the people who are against the murder of non-human-animal "life' are equally for the protection of abortion. But that's because the environmental movement is more anti-human than it is pro-earth. Tangent. Each side of the abortion debate is trying to frame it using precisely chosen words to bolster their argument. Every single person knows exactly what the debate is about. Killing a fetus. It doesn't matter what we would do on Mars with a single cell. It also doesn't matter that a fetus can't function on its own. Debate the issue, not the semantics. And in case it seems like I'm waffling, I'm personally against all abortions that aren't for rape or health concerns for the mother or child. However I concede, as an atheist, that my views are based on a personal analysis of humanity and not some magical graybeard in the sky telling me what to do. In such instances where the population is clearly split, the tie goes to the citizen. So I would make abortion legal up the the point of viability (currently hovering around 22 weeks, so let's call it 25 for now). After viability only serious risk to the mother or child would be ground for an abortion. A middle ground solution to a deeply divided issue. But like so many conversations in American politics today, we now spend more time talking about the semantics of the issues than the issue itself.

I live in airline base and I'd only call one other airline guy a close friend. Everyone else is from church, kid's soccer, Scouts. Especially if you commute, you probably will have zero airline friends. I'll say it was a little lonely the first year or two after leaving the AF cocoon. Nobody I met (except one sheriff's deputy) could remotely relate to my last decade+. But, the longer I'm out, the less I can relate to my active time and the more I relate to my civilian friends. Now that I'm not dealing with deployments, PCSs, MPF, and the latest OPR drama, I relate more to my civilian friend's preteen problems, their public school gripes, their IRA strategies, and that spot in their yard where grass just will not grow. None of those things are airline-related, so they're easy to build relationships around. I assume you're a reasonably well adjusted officer. You'll do fine.

Pretty simple. He’s using a parallel example of Mars to show the error in your/society’s whimsical definition of “life.”

If the mars rover had the capability and it found a single cell organism or, more impressively, a multicell organism on that distant planet, all the scientists on this planet would say we have discovered what? A) A non-viable mass. B) an inconvenience C) life.

you should let the folks at NASA know you figured it out! https://exoplanets.nasa.gov/search-for-life/can-we-find-life/

Which trimester is the planet in?

LOL! KLRF PIQ classroom instructor, and Vietnam vet described the latter part of his career saying "I've been passed over more times than Toneyville"! I remember having to hold there in IMC for nearly an hour on my 1st Qual Check in the 90's. (no magenta line or autothrottles with the -E's back then, too funny)

The irony of a free press is that it is simultaneously a democracy's/republic's greatest defender and greatest threat. When the press does its watchdog role faithfully against the government irrespective of who is in power, it is vital to our system of governance. But when it decides to become merely the propaganda arm for one political party, then it is dangerous.